One by one the other teams joined Virgil, Dahlia, Ethan, Fi, Sulley, and Corvus outside. With more than half the teams here, the oldest meister-weapon pair could imagine no further excuse for delays.
”See you all later then, I guess.” After her weapon began to walk off, Dahlia turned to the others and gave a condescending wave.
“Don't fall behind, now. It might get a little boring if we have to bash every cultist to death with a shield.” Hopefully, a little competition would get this mission going. Dahlia took off running, with Virgil accelerating to meet her pace when she passed him, and together the two students left the imposing DWMA behind. They descended with great speed into the city, leaving the crowded main streets at the first opportunity in order to find the darker, more feculent regions of Death City. Here, Dahlia's soul detection, though not by any means acute, helped point the way for them to go. Beyond the bricks, shutters, shingles, and stones, there lay corrupted souls, monsters no longer human but not yet living calamities. Though the two exchanged no words, they could feel one another's mounting excitement: the hunt was on.
A tiny puddle of runoff from some nearby bathhouse gave a thin, cold splash as the platform shoe of Virgil impacted it. The rough detection abilities of Dahlia had led them here, to one of the most mysterious parts of Death City: the Condemned Burgh. Poverty, disease, and dirt drove most of the residents from this malignant zone months ago, leaving layers of formidably-built but small and shabby buildings stretching in every direction like a labyrinth. Indeed, to set foot on these mossy cobblestones and navigate the Burgh touched the soul, giving the impression of a stone maze rather than a living community. No light shone through the crude blinds and barred windows of this place, and when it did, it flickered feebly, like a winter hearth only a few embers away from going out. Even the air seemed oppressive, creeping into the nostrils of the students as their pace slowed. Yawning dark crevices and leering ajar doorways lay in every direction, the thoughts of their former or perhaps current inhabitants haunting the visitors enough so that every rat and month that interrupted the gravelike stillness seemed a quivering, monstrous atrocity. Ropes, crude bridges, tarps, and other such clogged the rooftops overhead, keeping the sun from disturbing the Burgh's forlorn, impenetrable quiet. Of course, neither of the intruders knew exactly where they were going, and as they progressed, they couldn't shake the mounting feeling that the Burgh itself was leading them.
Abruptly, the claustrophobic alleyway opened up into a yard. A sidewalk cut a line through yellow grass and gray dirt to a large house with windows lit. On all sides of the lot, the buildings crowded up like walls to a room. Overhead, the sky looked dark and stormy, even though it had been clear for the rare glimpses at it the Burgh afforded, the last just minutes ago. Not a soul moved in the entire courtyard, but Virgil's fingers tightened on his shotgun nevertheless. Dahlia's sharp eyes caught something sitting on a stone bench in the courtyard's center: a human corpse. The woman seemed ragged, as if she'd been wandering through the Burgh for days, and her face was frozen in a look of magnificent dread. Next to her on the bench was a scruffy pile of trash, feathers, and cloth, and before the students' eyes, the pile began to move.
A leg poked from it and silently touched the ground. Moving slowly, the pule unfurled itself and stood up, before turning three dull, orange eyes on the intruders. Neither could tell what the thing was, but Dahlia could see the faint wisps of a devoured human soul among its fangs, and even before the monster picked up a previously-unnoticed spear from the ground its ghastly, abhorrent
visage cemented it as a nightmare even among nightmares. Around its spearhead danced a mad, inexplicable golden flame, and the beast called Agheu Glas moaned in joyful anticipation for its coming meal.
Virgil tossed the shotgun to his partner and in a flash of blue steel transformed into a greatshield. Her face grim, Dahlia held it forward and locked the shotgun into its right-hand slot, ready to fire. Agheu Glas hissed an odious, inhuman sigh of cruel pleasure, and the fight began.
